Tom Petty, Heartbreakers commemorate 30 years of great Southern stories
By Helen A.S. PopkinMSNBC contributor
The Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers hit “American Girl” has an oft-repeated back story that, as a Florida native (like Petty), I’ve always wanted to believe was true.
As the legend goes, Gainesville-born Petty wrote it about a University of Florida coed who jumped to her death from the Beatty Towers dorm. One variation has the unnamed girl tripping on hallucinogens and attempting to fly. I prefer the version in which the coed is lucid, voluntarily shedding her mortal coil and filled with the invigoration suicides are said to have once they make the decision.
Since middle school, I’ve repeated this story to incredulous ears more times than I can remember — continuing to tell it even when I was too old to responsibly pass on such unfounded nonsense. Enter the Internet. Some time back, in an ADD moment, I googled the myth only to find that sadly, a myth is all it is.
It’s not that I want some girl to be dead. I’m just a sucker for good Southern ghost story, which with or without a suicide, “American Girl” remains. What soulless creature (who enjoys rock and roll music) doesn’t get chills every time the ringing guitar riff pops up on classic radio? Then there are the lyrics, and just as important, Petty’s phrasing: “And if she had to die/Trying she/Had one little promise she was gonna keep … ”
“American Girl” is so eerie, it was used to create atmosphere in “Silence of the Lambs,” and so fresh that it’s hard to believe the song came out in 1977. Yet this summer, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers celebrate their 30th anniversary by launching what is rumored to be the band’s last major tour. And in July, Petty releases “Highway Companion,” his third solo LP (and 18th overall). How scary is that?
Runnin’ down a dreamThroughout his long, successful career, Petty has been compared musically to the likes of the Byrds, Bob Dylan and Neil Young. But as “American Girl,” and the rest of his huge catalog reveal, this Florida boy hails from the same story-telling tradition as fellow Southerners Flannery O’Conner, Carson McCullers and Truman Capote. Like the best of their work, Petty’s songs create sparse, sharp images, with something desperate underneath.
“American Girl” is the only Petty hit that comes with a fan-generated urban legend (that I know about). But it’s one of many practically-perfect songs about Regular Joes and Josephines yearning to break free. If not from life, then the particular lives they happen to be living. Take just a few of the titles: “Breakdown,” “I Need to Know,” “Refugee,” “The Waiting,” “Running Down a Dream,” “Runaway Trains,” “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.”
The Heartbreakers sound is a deceptively simple roots rock hybrid. It echos garage rock, folk and pure pop while remaining wholly American and unique. (FYI: Petty shares his roots via his record collection on the XM Satellite Radio Show “Tom Petty’s Buried Treasures.”) Underneath the music, Petty’s Southern voice (both literal and literary) brings personas and characters to life. In “Spike,” he only needs one line to conjure a vivid scene of rednecks harassing some poor punk rock kid (“Hey, Spike/You’re scarin’ my wife”).
In Petty’s love songs, like the Carson McCullers story, the heart is always a lonely hunter. Take “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” a song he recorded with Stevie Nicks. (Word to your mother — Nicks is performing with Petty on the Heartbreakers tour.) Here is a man so wounded by his lover, all he can do is beg her to stop. It ain’t quite Dylan, but it works.
Pack up the plantation
Unlike less fortunate talented artists (Hey, Paul Westerberg!), Petty’s songwriting gets the recognition and Grammys it deserves. In 1996, Petty received both the Golden Note Award from ASCAP and UCLA’s George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement. In 1999, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2002, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Petty even had a guest spot on the “Simpsons” playing himself as the song writing instructor at Homer’s rock star camp.
Achieving rock star status during MTV’s early days, Petty’s creativity transferred well to video. So much so that he received MTV’s Video Vanguard Award in 1994. Those old enough may cringe when remembering the Heartbreakers “You Got Lucky” video in which Petty and his crew travel a post-apocalyptic desert in some sort of Buckminster Fuller mobile ala “Mad Max.” It wasn’t a bad song. It wasn’t a bad video. But man, it seemed like MTV played it every five minutes. Better to remember the spooky “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” in which Petty, as the Mad Hatter, torments Alice in Wonderland before serving her as cake. Then there’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” in which Petty gussies up, then parties with a corpse (played by Kim Basinger). Now that’s good Southern Gothic!
Like the best storytellers, Petty easily translates his song’s stories on stage. He and the Heartbreakers still put on a great show. Over the years, the performance has transformed from youthful exuberance and boundless energy to the more theatrical. Though not widely thought of as one of the more politically vocal rock stars, Petty has used his concerts as an outlet for his views on the government. In a 1991 show, as the band played “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” three characters dressed as Presidents Nixon, Reagan and Bush (the father) chased Petty around the stage.
The first performances of the current tour lasted over two electric hours. A retrospective set list covers the best known Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers hits as well as Petty’s work with rock super group, the Traveling Wilburys, and songs from Petty’s upcoming “Highway Companion” LP. There are few surprises in the song choices — it is, after all, an anniversary tour. But as 30 years of touring show, Petty and the Heartbreakers concerts are never stale.
Ever the crowd-please, Petty is following tradition and closing shows with … what song? “American Girl,” of course. And for the two hours of music played to get there, the audience is always ready to explode when the final encore comes around. Like any great story, “American Girl” is one you can hear a million times, and still want to hear it a million more. The song may not have a ghost story behind it, but like Tom Petty, “American Girl” never seems to get old.
New York City-based writer Helen A.S. Popkin can’t help thinking there’s a little more to life, somewhere else.
Showing posts with label Madison Square Garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Madison Square Garden. Show all posts
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Tom Petty: Still a Heartbreaker
BY IRA ROBBINS
Special to Newsday
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ended Tuesday's show at the beginning, with "American Girl," the enduring contribution to skinny tie new wave music from their 1976 debut album. Some rockers of such vintage might be self-conscious about the connotations of a three-decade career, but Petty - who, at 55, still has his blond locks and his svelte figure - was never an icon of youth or rebellion. His values skirt such elements in tuneful electric pop that, since "American Girl" at least, have rarely been tied to a big idea or a particular era.
Free of such encumbrance, his achievement and endurance are markers of a well-built machine, not a fading legacy. The few new songs in a carefully constructed two-hour set were ladled gently into a parade of hits, some of them featuring old duet partner Stevie Nicks, who thoughtfully brought along enough gear for two costume changes.
Petty has never been the most forceful front man, but his top-notch band, led by guitarist Mike Campbell, buoys the laconic rocker to effortless agreeability. At only a couple of points, including a note-for-note reproduction of the Yardbirds' 1965 take on "I'm a Man" and the three songs leading up to the encore - "Don't Come Around Here No More," "Refugee" and "Runnin' Down a Dream" - were any fires set onstage. Campbell, sporting dreadlocks and facial hair, looked positively delighted to get excited; otherwise, Petty set the energy level on moderate, rendering sturdy tunes relieved of such traditional rock elements as sex, sweat and rebellion.
In their own way, Petty's songs reveal a deeply felt American sensibility. Without making any overt statements, he endorses freedom, perseverance, courage and recreational sedation.
Starting with "Listen to Her Heart" and "You Don't Know How It Feels" (the drug references in both, as well as in the subsequent "Mary Jane's Last Dance," might explain a surprising amount of unimpeded pot-smoking in the audience), Petty and the five Heartbreakers made it look and sound easy, with measured rhythms, gentle singing and a solid beat provided by Steve Ferrone.
With the homogenization of rock into safe, predictable entertainment, Petty is nothing if not a reliable crowd-pleaser, and he delivered it all: hits, covers, new tunes, genial remarks, the works. If the shapeless boogie of "Saving Grace" and the acoustic plainness of "Square One" offered a discouraging preview of his impending "Highway Companion" album, a pair of borrowed tunes ("I'm a Man" and the pre-Nicks Fleetwood Mac guitar rave-up "Oh Well") brought the past convincingly to life. Nicks joined in on their 1981 hit "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" as well as "I Need to Know" and "American Girl"; Petty's thoroughgoing retrospective even had room for the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care," during which Heartbreaker Scott Thurston gamely attempted the late Roy Orbison's part.
Trey Anastasio, the guitarist-singer late of Phish, opened the evening with an extremely long hour of cotton-wrapped rhythms, shapeless songs and aimless jams that was greeted by some of the most arrhythmic crowd dancing this side of "Barney and Friends."
TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS. Thirty years of hits and no fouls. Seen at Madison Square Garden Tuesday.
Special to Newsday
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ended Tuesday's show at the beginning, with "American Girl," the enduring contribution to skinny tie new wave music from their 1976 debut album. Some rockers of such vintage might be self-conscious about the connotations of a three-decade career, but Petty - who, at 55, still has his blond locks and his svelte figure - was never an icon of youth or rebellion. His values skirt such elements in tuneful electric pop that, since "American Girl" at least, have rarely been tied to a big idea or a particular era.
Free of such encumbrance, his achievement and endurance are markers of a well-built machine, not a fading legacy. The few new songs in a carefully constructed two-hour set were ladled gently into a parade of hits, some of them featuring old duet partner Stevie Nicks, who thoughtfully brought along enough gear for two costume changes.
Petty has never been the most forceful front man, but his top-notch band, led by guitarist Mike Campbell, buoys the laconic rocker to effortless agreeability. At only a couple of points, including a note-for-note reproduction of the Yardbirds' 1965 take on "I'm a Man" and the three songs leading up to the encore - "Don't Come Around Here No More," "Refugee" and "Runnin' Down a Dream" - were any fires set onstage. Campbell, sporting dreadlocks and facial hair, looked positively delighted to get excited; otherwise, Petty set the energy level on moderate, rendering sturdy tunes relieved of such traditional rock elements as sex, sweat and rebellion.
In their own way, Petty's songs reveal a deeply felt American sensibility. Without making any overt statements, he endorses freedom, perseverance, courage and recreational sedation.
Starting with "Listen to Her Heart" and "You Don't Know How It Feels" (the drug references in both, as well as in the subsequent "Mary Jane's Last Dance," might explain a surprising amount of unimpeded pot-smoking in the audience), Petty and the five Heartbreakers made it look and sound easy, with measured rhythms, gentle singing and a solid beat provided by Steve Ferrone.
With the homogenization of rock into safe, predictable entertainment, Petty is nothing if not a reliable crowd-pleaser, and he delivered it all: hits, covers, new tunes, genial remarks, the works. If the shapeless boogie of "Saving Grace" and the acoustic plainness of "Square One" offered a discouraging preview of his impending "Highway Companion" album, a pair of borrowed tunes ("I'm a Man" and the pre-Nicks Fleetwood Mac guitar rave-up "Oh Well") brought the past convincingly to life. Nicks joined in on their 1981 hit "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" as well as "I Need to Know" and "American Girl"; Petty's thoroughgoing retrospective even had room for the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care," during which Heartbreaker Scott Thurston gamely attempted the late Roy Orbison's part.
Trey Anastasio, the guitarist-singer late of Phish, opened the evening with an extremely long hour of cotton-wrapped rhythms, shapeless songs and aimless jams that was greeted by some of the most arrhythmic crowd dancing this side of "Barney and Friends."
TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS. Thirty years of hits and no fouls. Seen at Madison Square Garden Tuesday.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Madison Square Garden Review
By PHIL GALLO - Variety
Tom Petty played three songs from his upcoming album as he and the Heartbreakers played Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.
For 30 years, Tom Petty has avoided the tug of nostalgia in assembling his shows: Nearly each of his tours with the Heartbreakers has been accompanied by a new release whose material is firmly integrated among the hits and oddities. This summer, Petty's on a two-fold mission -- celebrating the three decades since their debut recording and working in new tracks from his solo disc "Highway Companion," which American Recordings will release July 25. Three new songs made it into Tuesday's set and they are wildly different from each other; they share, however, a desire for musical intimacy that's a tough sell in a basketball arena.
Petty devoted two-thirds of his 21-song show to hit singles, opening with "Listen to Her Heart" and closing with "American Girl," but he is reaching for a level of connection with fans that seems to only interest artists once they pass the age of 45 (he's 55).
His attempt at intimacy -- an acoustic segment, favoring songs that play at a lope rather than a gallop, showcasing more introverted material -- falls short in places yet never because of a fault in the execution. (Abundant guitar changes stunted the pacing.) Petty has never been one for spontaneity or shtick and his lack of salesman skills hurt him as the audience drifted from rapt on "I Need to Know," with guest Stevie Nicks leading the vocals, to disinterest three slow songs later when Nicks and Petty were delivering a beautiful and graceful duet on "Insider" that reminded of Gram Parson and Emmylou Harris.
Remarkably, the band recovered with "Don't Come Around Here No More," an equally tepidly paced ballad, but one that plays off striking dynamics between the instrumentalists and one that kicks into high gear toward its conclusion. Energy in the sold-out arena was viscerally changed, but it mostly didn't matter: Only "Refugee""Refugee" and "Running Down a Dream" were left before the encores started.
The segment that damaged the pacing included two new songs, "Melinda" and "Square One," that felt out of context in a triple-decker musical sandwich that included a Nicks-mumbled "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" and a gently rendered "Learning to Fly."
"Melinda" opens at the steady pace of a train as Petty sings about a woman who's far away yet worthy of him spending all his savings to travel to see her. It draws its musical substantiveness, though, when it suddenly shifts into an angular Steely Dan-ish mode and Benmont Tench is given space to explore a series of block chord solos on the piano and a few washes on the synthesizer.
"Square One" is more pop-oriented and cuddly, a number that sounds like it should have been offered to the Dixie Chicks. It has AC radio written all over it and if its chorus of the protagonist's tabula rosa approach to romance clicks with listeners it might have a future at radio.
The other rookie, the boogie-pop "Saving Grace," served as the anthem for the NBA Finals last week -- an odd choice lyrically, musically and demographically -- but it drives home the point that heroes of the '70s and '80s have no choice but to go the sponsorship route to get their new music heard outside the concert venues. Like Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp and Neil YoungNeil Young -- artists who filled their coffers with proceeds from anthems and then had something deeper to say after the auds stopped their fist pumping -- Petty appears determined to look forward while delivering a satisfying overview of his recording career.
Bonus points are culled from his continuing to introduce spirited covers that influenced him as a kid. The Yardbirds' version of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man" fit the Heartbreakers' skill set perfectly; Peter Green's "Oh Well" isn't quite right for Petty's nasally tone, but the band marvelously nailed the riffs of the early Fleetwood Mac hit; and "Mystic Eyes," Van Morrison's terrifying shot at blending voodoo and psychedelia during his tenure with Them, was one of the evening's highlights. The Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care" featured rhythm guitarist-harmonica player Scott Thurston admirably singing Roy Orbison's parts.
The Heartbreakers are still driven by the wide-ranging guitar talent of Mike Campbell and Tench's ace keyboard work. They shake up the best-known songs with little touches and late in the evening get to disembowel "You Wreck Me," modulating the melody from driving rock to a measured clip to an almost ambient soundscape. At the tune's slowest moments, Campbell produced a solo that drew from Jerry Garcia's more-inspired work, a nice touch on a night that found Campbell generally working with a meatier tone and flashier solos.
Petty & the Heartbreakers have been an arena act for nearly 90% of their existence and as a leader Petty walks a rare line between commercial and critical viability. Tune after tune Tuesday, it was reminder how much Petty is a crucial and almost inexplicable bridge between the artistic and populist: He's the step between Bob Dylan and Cheap Trick, Bo Diddley and the Cars, Tim Buckley and Dashboard Confessional.
His 27-date tour, which doesn't have an L.A. show yet, partners him with the Allman Brothers Band or Pearl Jam on varying bills. And while those two acts have more adventurous experiments in their past, it will be interesting to see whose sound stands up to time better. Don't bet against Petty.
Petty & the Heartbreakers return to New York to toplinetopline Amsterjam on Randall's Island on Aug. 19.
Tom Petty played three songs from his upcoming album as he and the Heartbreakers played Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.
For 30 years, Tom Petty has avoided the tug of nostalgia in assembling his shows: Nearly each of his tours with the Heartbreakers has been accompanied by a new release whose material is firmly integrated among the hits and oddities. This summer, Petty's on a two-fold mission -- celebrating the three decades since their debut recording and working in new tracks from his solo disc "Highway Companion," which American Recordings will release July 25. Three new songs made it into Tuesday's set and they are wildly different from each other; they share, however, a desire for musical intimacy that's a tough sell in a basketball arena.
Petty devoted two-thirds of his 21-song show to hit singles, opening with "Listen to Her Heart" and closing with "American Girl," but he is reaching for a level of connection with fans that seems to only interest artists once they pass the age of 45 (he's 55).
His attempt at intimacy -- an acoustic segment, favoring songs that play at a lope rather than a gallop, showcasing more introverted material -- falls short in places yet never because of a fault in the execution. (Abundant guitar changes stunted the pacing.) Petty has never been one for spontaneity or shtick and his lack of salesman skills hurt him as the audience drifted from rapt on "I Need to Know," with guest Stevie Nicks leading the vocals, to disinterest three slow songs later when Nicks and Petty were delivering a beautiful and graceful duet on "Insider" that reminded of Gram Parson and Emmylou Harris.
Remarkably, the band recovered with "Don't Come Around Here No More," an equally tepidly paced ballad, but one that plays off striking dynamics between the instrumentalists and one that kicks into high gear toward its conclusion. Energy in the sold-out arena was viscerally changed, but it mostly didn't matter: Only "Refugee""Refugee" and "Running Down a Dream" were left before the encores started.
The segment that damaged the pacing included two new songs, "Melinda" and "Square One," that felt out of context in a triple-decker musical sandwich that included a Nicks-mumbled "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" and a gently rendered "Learning to Fly."
"Melinda" opens at the steady pace of a train as Petty sings about a woman who's far away yet worthy of him spending all his savings to travel to see her. It draws its musical substantiveness, though, when it suddenly shifts into an angular Steely Dan-ish mode and Benmont Tench is given space to explore a series of block chord solos on the piano and a few washes on the synthesizer.
"Square One" is more pop-oriented and cuddly, a number that sounds like it should have been offered to the Dixie Chicks. It has AC radio written all over it and if its chorus of the protagonist's tabula rosa approach to romance clicks with listeners it might have a future at radio.
The other rookie, the boogie-pop "Saving Grace," served as the anthem for the NBA Finals last week -- an odd choice lyrically, musically and demographically -- but it drives home the point that heroes of the '70s and '80s have no choice but to go the sponsorship route to get their new music heard outside the concert venues. Like Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp and Neil YoungNeil Young -- artists who filled their coffers with proceeds from anthems and then had something deeper to say after the auds stopped their fist pumping -- Petty appears determined to look forward while delivering a satisfying overview of his recording career.
Bonus points are culled from his continuing to introduce spirited covers that influenced him as a kid. The Yardbirds' version of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man" fit the Heartbreakers' skill set perfectly; Peter Green's "Oh Well" isn't quite right for Petty's nasally tone, but the band marvelously nailed the riffs of the early Fleetwood Mac hit; and "Mystic Eyes," Van Morrison's terrifying shot at blending voodoo and psychedelia during his tenure with Them, was one of the evening's highlights. The Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care" featured rhythm guitarist-harmonica player Scott Thurston admirably singing Roy Orbison's parts.
The Heartbreakers are still driven by the wide-ranging guitar talent of Mike Campbell and Tench's ace keyboard work. They shake up the best-known songs with little touches and late in the evening get to disembowel "You Wreck Me," modulating the melody from driving rock to a measured clip to an almost ambient soundscape. At the tune's slowest moments, Campbell produced a solo that drew from Jerry Garcia's more-inspired work, a nice touch on a night that found Campbell generally working with a meatier tone and flashier solos.
Petty & the Heartbreakers have been an arena act for nearly 90% of their existence and as a leader Petty walks a rare line between commercial and critical viability. Tune after tune Tuesday, it was reminder how much Petty is a crucial and almost inexplicable bridge between the artistic and populist: He's the step between Bob Dylan and Cheap Trick, Bo Diddley and the Cars, Tim Buckley and Dashboard Confessional.
His 27-date tour, which doesn't have an L.A. show yet, partners him with the Allman Brothers Band or Pearl Jam on varying bills. And while those two acts have more adventurous experiments in their past, it will be interesting to see whose sound stands up to time better. Don't bet against Petty.
Petty & the Heartbreakers return to New York to toplinetopline Amsterjam on Randall's Island on Aug. 19.
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